Category Last Walk Report

15 walkers took on the walk from Bundeena Road towards Wattamolla Beach. 

Starting off with a car shuffle,with clear, blue winter’s day – it was perfect conditions for a stretch of the Royal National Park’s most scenic coastline. The track wound straight out through open heath, with sandstone boardwalks keeping feet dry and wide views opening to the sea almost immediately. 

From the heath the track dropped down to Little Marley, where the group stopped for morning tea on the rocks overlooking the beach 

After morning tea the group pushed on towards Wattamolla beach, having a well earned lunch break before heading to Providence Point. With views towards Wollongong

The highlight of the day, though, was the whale show. A pod of humpbacks put on an extended display – cruising along the surface, blowing, and at one point breaching with a huge fin slap 

The walk wrapped up back at Wattamolla Beach Car Park, with 11km, 150m of ups and downs,  and a front-row whale show . The day was rounded out with a well-earned coffee catch-up at Audley Weir – a relaxed end to a brilliant day. 

View over Killcare Beach

Rock art spot with a view

Boudii’s famous Angophoras

Fly like an eagle Justin!

Sea eagle on the breeze

Stretching out along the coastal walk

12 walkers stared down the weather forecast to have a mostly dry walk around Daley’s Point and Boudii NP. We saw some Aboriginal Art, many grass trees and angophoras, a huge sea eagle doing laps along the coast, some amazing views to Maitland Bay/ Killcare Beach and out to sea, nudi-branchs on the beach, singing honey-eaters, ringing bell birds, baby butcher birds… and yes leeches. Morning tea with a view inland over Brisbane Water was followed by Lunch at Hardy’s Bay. The day finished with a couple of big hills which tested Julie’s new heart rate monitor (174bpm) and every-one’s wet weather gear. We finished at Ettalong Diggers in good spirits and where the last stealthy hitchhikers were removed from legs, shoes and socks.

Well, what can I say? The weather was fabulous, the views were stunning, the company was good, we escaped the rain in Sydney.

Wilkinson Hill was first. The track out was fire trail at first then bush track, then possibly guesswork as far as where the track was. However, we easily arrived at our destination, at the cliff edge overlooking the Grose Valley. We could see several places the club has been before, Ikara Head, Valhalla Head, Thor Head, the way into Asgard swamp, the creek we scrambled into to get to all those places. We had morning tea here to enjoy the view, making sure we did not get too close to the edge with its vertical fall of at least 100 metres.

After morning tea, we retraced our steps until we came to the turnoff to Jinki Ridge. This track was much more distinct, possibly because it’s the exit from Dalpura Canyon. We proceeded quite well along here until we came to a place where the head of a creek needed to be crossed onto another part of the ridge. The group judged this to be too difficult, as the rocky slope was wet and slippery after recent rain, so the decision was made to have lunch on top of a pagoda and enjoy the view.

After lunch there was some more scouting around, first of another ridgeline of pagodas and then of a possible way to get around the slippery slope. This walk was exploratory, so this route will be left to be investigated on another occasion. Despite the fact that we fell short of our planned objective for this part of the walk, the area we traversed was beautiful, with small pagodas and meadows of low vegetation. Drinks were at the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens café.

The pictures tell how beautiful whole area is.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4z4uKCkEzG9S2NLc7

A bright sunny morning but with a touch of winter chill saw 7 walkers gather at Mangrove Mountain to tackle a walk which, at 25 klms, is much longer than our usual walks. After driving as far down Dubbo Gully Rd as possible ( a locked gate preventing further progress), we set off downhill on good fire trail. After 2 klm, we took the left fork at the Y junction and crossed a long bridge over Mangrove Creek.

At the 4klm mark, we stopped to explore the historic cemetery, finding graves dating back to the 1850’s, including one for a former convict.

A short time later, another Y junction marked the started of the Dubbo Gully Loop. We took the left hand track, doing the loop clockwise. The trail loosely follows Mangrove Creek and has remnants of historic embankments and culverts visible at the side. We paused here for morning tea, above the creek.

After passing through a low, swampy area, the track started to climb gradually, but it was a sustained incline.

Just after the half way mark, we encountered the Ten Mile Hollow camp ground, equipped with a toilet, table and bench seats and fire pits. Turning right onto the Old Great North Rd, it was about 1 klm to reach Clares Bridge, constructed in 1830 and named for the overseer of construction. There is no decking on the bridge, but the support structures are impressive and made a good spot for lunch.

After lunch, there was a little more uphill and then started downhill, which was a little steeper than the long ascent. We stopped to admire a good view looking down on our earlier pathway. A lyrebird was spotted on the way, a nice surprise after hearing (but not seeing)several earlier in the day among a lot of other birdsong. We had also seen Purple Swamp-hens and a brown cuckoo dove.

Having completed the loop, we retraced our steps back to the cars, a very welcome sight for some of us. It had been a long walk, but with excellent weather and good spirits maintained, the walk was completed in good time. Drinks at the Mangrove Mountain Memorial Club were appreciated.

Well done all!

16 walkers met at Hawthorne light rail station for the start of our walk.  The Greenway is a mixed cycle and walkway in the inner west. For a Saturday morning it was not as busy as feared

As the walk along the Greenway is only short we had ample time to stop and admire the commissioned art installations, parks, industrial heritage, tunnels and bridges. 

Arriving at Cooks River we ran into a Coffee cart- long awaited by some. Morning tea was had in a picnic shelter and then we retraced our steps back to the Dulwich Hill light rail back to Hawthorne

Most of us elected to walk further north along the canal to the Bay Run where we had lunch

By the time we returned to Hawthorne we had clocked up about 11kms

Chris.

All 20 walkers agreed it was a perfect morning for a walk in the lower Blue Mountains. Clear, clean and just crisp enough! 2 people got the meeting place wrong but soon sorted and all reassembled in a suburban street trying not to disturb the residents’ peace/access too much.

Away we go with a short section of street walking to start and then into the descent from Picnic Point to Magdala Creek. Track then follows Magdala Creek with several crossings and small waterfalls to its junction with Glenbrook Creek at Perch Ponds campsite. All tried to find a patch of sunshine in this area to enjoy a morning tea break.

Headed upstream beside Sassafras Creek enjoying the creek views with huge boulders, sandy stretches, wonderful forest. Some of the many fallen logs to scramble over were soon encountered. After the junction with Glenbrook Creek, as we continued up Sassafras Gully, these fallen logs and trees seemed to multiply! Enjoyed lunch in the sun at a creek crossing before the last couple of kilometres following a side creek UP to Sassafras Gully Rd and our cars.

17 of the group made for The Lapstone Inn at Glenbrook for well earned refreshments. Thanks all for helping out with clambering when required and good spirits throughout the walk. David and Val

After various options on how to get to the start of the walk at Mt Kuring gai station, 15 hikers set off to safely cross over the highway and then start the descent into the valley.

Weather was the best we’ve had for walking so far this year (even some jackets on!) so everyone was very happy with that.

After recent rain, forest was very lush and “clean” and the fungi were putting on an amazing display from caramel coloured to blue to orange to red.

Morning tea was enjoyed at a creek crossing with lots of suitable rocks for sitting on. There were many creek crossings throughout the day and all conquered without too much drama.

The forest changes throughout the walk make it interesting: almost rainforest to salt marshes.

The steep climb up from Sam’s Creek was rewarded with views, lunch and seating at Naa Badu Lookout over Berowra Creek. Final stretch after lunch maintained the upward direction but more gently.

Refreshments at Berowra RSL were enjoyed by all and it was good to welcome our newest members Helen and Alice to the fold and compliment our visitor Tutu on her first outing with us.

Seven walkers, including visitors Alice and Joe, met at Kurnell near the entry to Kamay National Park. The weather was beautifully fine and calm with temperatures suited to walking.

We did a turn around the historic Cook’s landing site, which is being extensively refurbished, and then over to the Cape Solander track for a walk through the angophora, palms and banksias.

Arriving at Cape Solander we turned south and followed the track down to Cape Baily Lighthouse, with morning tea at one of the clifftop rock platforms on the way. We took in the view back to the city and south down the coast from the lighthouse, and then headed back to Cape Solander.

We took a quick look at the whale watch information station and then went back along the Yena firetrail and Cape Solander track  to the historic site for a bit of lunch. The walk finished with us going back along the foreshore to the starting point, where five of us headed to drinks at the 1770 café.